Jelastic Inc., the company behind the next-generation Java hosting platform of the same name, launches its highly anticipated PHP hosting service in the fourth quarter of 2012. The unique benefit of PHP running on Jelastic is vertical scalability: no more need to overpay for large servers or suffer from insufficient resources. As the load grows, the application gets more resources automatically and immediately.

The Jelastic platform offers users a fundamentally different approach to cloud hosting, being simple enough for novices to create and deploy their projects in a few clicks, but at the same time requiring no code changes for scaling and providing enough power options for experienced programmers.

What are the key features of PHP on Jelastic?

The most innovative feature is the automated vertical scaling. Jelastic automatically increases or reduces the CPU and RAM for an application as it monitors application loads in real-time. This feature guarantees that users never overpay for unused resources; and it saves them time because there is no need for manual adjustments or architectural changes. As the application load goes up or down, resources are allocated immediately and automatically! It is also possible to specify resource caps to prevent unexpected or high bills.

In addition to the automated vertical scaling, applications hosted on Jelastic can be scaled horizontally. With just a couple of clicks the user can change the number of nodes from 1 to 8 (the actual upper limit is determined by the hoster).

Secondly, Jelastic is just easy: users don't have to do any installations or configurations, and a huge selection of software stacks is ready to go. At the same time the platform is highly efficient: each application or database server is a separate virtual machine, so that the user gets the necessary security and performance isolation. Users can use any networks ports that are needed, get public IP addresses, tune configuration files, reboot servers at any time and much more. Jelastic's beautiful graphical user interface ensures that anyone can get started with the platform in minutes.

The PHP Dev/Test/Production life cycle is greatly benefited from cloud hosting on Jelastic. Once an application is uploaded to Jelastic, the user can test, scale and deploy it to production without any code changes, clone environments including database content for troubleshooting or modifications, swap environments (for example staging and production) and define permissions for each environment for different team members.

Another competitive advantage of Jelastic is its versatility. Whole PHP project can be easily deployed with the platform's automated function (.tar, .tar.gz, .zip and .bzip2 formats are supported).

Other important features of Jelastic PHP cloud hosting:

- Choice of Apache or NGINX application server;
- All key PHP extensions for Apache and NGINX are available (the customer can add additional modules if necessary);
- Multiple SQL and NoSQL database options (MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and CouchDB) and remote access to databases;
- The user can access configuration files and make any changes to PHP settings;
- The user can select a PHP version and easily switch from one to another;
- Git/SVN revision control system makes it possible to commit the code and deploy it straight to the environment;
- Built-in Memcached node for advanced caching;

The free beta of PHP cloud hosting service on Jelastic will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2012; its commercial launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2013.

You can submit your email address to
http://php.jelastic.com, if you would like to be notified when the free beta of Jelastic PHP cloud hosting service is launched.